A Classic

"Why is she locked up inside the attic like that?"

Violet's words came from the couch as she sat watching the movie.

"She's insane, so he keeps her up there so she won't hurt anybody;

he has a care-giver up there for her so she won't hurt anybody or herself,"
I answered from the ironing board.

"What makes a person go insane like that?"

her questions seemed to come one right after another.

She had watched this movie already and was watching it again,

better understanding it this time, but wanting to understand those parts that had bothered her.

"There are different reasons for a person going insane,"

I paused as to which direction to go with this.
  I always try to find ways to condense information so that I don't lose my kids in big dialog.  It is a tricky conjuring up of rapid, precise information.

"Sometimes it is genetic, like in her case.  That means it was in her body from her mom or dad.

Her mother was insane, and they didn't tell him that when he married her.

Sometimes it can be caused by environment or things we eat or drink.

Eating too much junk or not getting the right nutrition for the body can make a person's body go off track."

I stopped for a minute to hand a crayon to Lillie who was asking for a pink one.

 I could see it had fallen and rolled by my feet.

Violet took this momentary lapse to ask another,
"Environment?

What do you mean by that?"

The hot iron was picked up again and swept the material as I answered,

"Environment means the situation or surroundings around you.

It's like the Romans that we are studying in history right now.

Some historians say many of them got lead poisoning because of the way they cooked in certain pots and pans or because of the piping that they used for their water.

When a metal in the body or even minerals become out of balance by having too much of it,

it can cause the brain to not function correctly."

"Another example is that there used to be a lot of lead used in paint."
I continued.

People who inhaled the dust from the paint that chipped off,

or little children who ate the paint chips that would flake off the windows were beginning to have problems and they linked it to the lead in the paint.

Aluminum pans is another one that can cause problems in the brain.

All of these large amounts of minerals and metals and different substances can cause problems in our bodies

because God made the body sensitive and we need to be careful what we put into it.

Sometimes, insanity can even be a spiritual thing, if a person fools with things of the devil.

There are different reasons for insanity,

but the thing was, he took care of her as best he could.

Others in that situation might have sent her away or even let her starve since she couldn't understand much of what was going on."

I could tell by the silence that she was thinking again.

"Why wouldn't Jane marry Mr. Rochester?  Why did she leave and not let him know where she was going?"

 This was a hard question, to try to sum up a person's hard choice to do what was right
even when it seemed so hard.

"She was not willing to go against her conscience." I summed up.
  "Once she found out he was married,

she knew she could not marry him.  She knew that deep in her heart,
she had to do what she knew was the right thing to do because she didn't want to live with the consequences of making a wrong choice.
Happiness doesn't come from things, or a big house, or jewelry,

or even marrying a man who loves you and you love him.

Happiness comes from doing what is right, even when it is really hard to do that.

That takes courage.  And she chose it."

 

"We all will have hard choices and you have to choose at that time what you will do.
We all make mistakes and God will always forgive us, and that is something important to never forget;
but there are consequences to the choices we make."

"It was hard." I agreed.  "It made her sad for a long time.

But God sees when we choose to do right and eventually she did end up happy again,

far happier than she would have been had she chosen to go against her conscience.

Sometimes, we may have to go through being sad,

but God sees the future and we have to trust that.

Back then, marriage was seen differently than today.

People who were married were married for life.  That is the way God intended it, even though that may be hard to have to live with sometimes, like it was for Mr. Rochester."

 I hadn't ironed for very long before she piped up again:

"That woman that liked Mr. Rochester, the rich one, she was so pretty,

and Jane is so plain.  I thought men liked beautiful women.  Why would he love Jane over her?"

 

I smiled at her thoughts, the heralded praise of beauty that is so often pushed on us,

all around us,

was being challenged by this story.

"The truth is, Violet, beauty is much more than what a person looks like.

What would be more pleasant to live with:

a plain person who smiles and sings and laughs and plays and is kind,

or a beautiful person who is mean and angry and hurtful?

Ugly manners and choices makes a beautiful person ugly.

Right character and choices can make a very plain person beautiful.

Men see that too, usually, sometimes not right away, but usually, eventually.

  It is tricky because men are created to be drawn to beauty

because that is the way God made them,

but they have to balance that with seeing the person on the inside,

or they may be stuck for the rest of their lives with a woman who makes their life unhappy."

 

Later, as the segments continued on, she came and said,

"Did you see how Jane acted when she found out she had inherited all that money

and she wasn't poor anymore.  She acted like it wasn't important.

But when she found out she was cousins of the people at Gateshead where she was staying,

she was so excited and happy.

Why would she be more excited about having three cousins than about being rich?"

"Well, let me ask you." I responded,
  "What would you feel like if you didn't have any relatives at all:

no parents,

no grandparents,

no sisters or brothers,

no aunts or uncles

(besides the really mean ones like she had lived with as a child),

no cousins,
not even any close friends,
nobody.

You were completely alone in this life.

What good would money be to you if you had nothing much to do with it,

nobody to do anything with or use it for,
except maybe to strangers who might need it more than you?

It would just be paper that could buy you stuff.

What if you found out suddenly that you had family,

that the people you were living with and had grown to love were actually cousins.

You would go from having absolutely nobody,

 to having family.

That is something that money cannot buy or fill.

Money may seem like everything to people,

but when you really sit down and think about it,

it is just paper,

just something to get you things,

but it can't buy you love, friends, or family.

Honestly, it cannot buy happiness;

it cannot buy peace with God."


Later after she'd gone to bed, I thought of these and other conversations this story had brought up:
.

a movie...from a classic.

Jane Eyre was a book I had to read in one of the teen years of my schooling.

I remember it very well because it stirred up in me many of these same questions,

issues that challenged so many different elements in life.

I thought of all the different things we had covered in just a few hours of a movie based on a classic

and I thought about our current educational dilemma.

So many of the classics are being pushed out,

seen as being 'out of touch' with the current generation

and it made me wonder:

can we ever really be out of touch with these things

or will we cause our future generations to fall below the richness of finding the simple truths to true happiness?

Are we fooling ourselves into accepting a faulty counterfeit to happiness.


"My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:

² For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.

³ Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:

⁴ So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.

⁵ Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

⁶ In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

⁷ Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.

⁸ It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.

Proverbs 3:1-8

When Two or Three Gather...Even on the Telephone.

Sometimes, when God reminds me how much He wants to hear from me,

He is so incredible:

it's almost hard to believe He would answer in such a way.

Often, it is easy for me to forget the power of prayer.

 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The first time I was asked on the phone if I had a prayer request I wanted to have prayed over,

it seemed awkward and strange.

It isn't that I don't pray.  I have prayed with my friends before, my family, my kids,

but when somebody you don't know asks on the phone if you want to pray about something,

it just kind of feels...

different.

I remember I had a friend in college who would sit on the phone with her head bowed

and when I asked her one time what she was doing,

she explained to me that whenever she called home, her dad always prayed with her.

I thought that was pretty neat.

When my husband was hired by his job,

there was no health insurance included for us,

so we had to find something.

Health insurance shopping can be daunting.

I had a friend who told me about a sharing program she was in:

Christians came together under an agreement to give a certain amount of money each month

toward the needs of each other.  There was different sharing programs depending on how much help you wanted toward the deductible, etc.  Those involved were of the same faith

and because of this, certain life behaviors were expected of each other,

cutting out a lot of the problems like smoking, drinking, and living promiscuously can bring with them.

I joined this health sharing program and have used it for several years now.

 

There is a place for prayer requests on their website;

they realize and prioritize the power of prayer.

I found that whenever I called about a question or something,

the worker on the other end of the line always ended the phone call asking if I had any specific prayer requests and if I would have time for a prayer.

I had a call to make today about a blood test I took for a healthy incentive program they offer.

At the end of the call, the question came.

 Last time, she prayed for my day home-schooling.

I can always use prayer for that.

Today was a day of going to the dentist.

We had put off one of the kid's six month check-up,

and now they had scheduled both the kids for the same time,

so as to save on gas and get two done with no extra waiting time.

I had called about what it was going to cost and warned my husband.

We go to a dentist who uses the safest methods of dentistry,

digital x-rays, white fillings, and he is very good with the kids,

does excellent, quick work.  I really feel confident in him.

Considering all this, his prices are good, but dentists aren't a gallon of milk and a dozen of eggs these days.  Having two go in at once was twice the pill to swallow.

"Can you pray for our dentist trip today?

My kids don't always have the best results from cleanings: it seems there is always something that needs to be fixed.  It can be hard to take sometimes."

The lady on the other end agreed and her prayer asked that God would be with our dental trip,

that he would give us a good day and cause our visit to be one that wouldn't be hard,

that the financial consequences would be minimal.

It was a specific prayer, and I again had that feeling,

almost a cringing inside,

"Should I really be bothering God about teeth?"

I always have this bad habit of thinking He must be so busy with things that are 

really important.

The kids disappeared into adjacent rooms

and I pulled out a sketchbook to work on a few things on my mind.

Lillie drew and then watched part of a movie.

When the kids emerged with their new toothbrushes and flossers,

I got up and went around to pay the bill.

"No cavities today.

Everything looks great.

No charge today, either." 

she said with a smile.

"Wait a minute.

What was that?"

I thought I had heard wrong.

"No charge.  Your sister-in-law came in with you for a reference,

and her family.  We have a $50 credit policy for each person you refer.

In fact, you have credit toward your next visit."

I had no idea.

I did not know my sister-in-law was going to start going to our dentist

or that she had.  My mother-in-law must have told her about our dentist and given us the referral.  How generous!  What a sweet surprise!

I thought of how we needed to thank my Farmer's sister,

his mom,

but more importantly,

I instantly thought of that prayer.

She smiled, like the news was as fun for her to give me as the look on my face must have been.

As we drove toward home that afternoon,

I told Violet about the answered prayer.

"Perhaps we should call her up next time we need something else to be prayed for,"

Violet smiled, and I knew she knew as I did that the answer to the prayer was a gift from God.

Then we both had the same thought,

"Let me call Daddy," she said.

"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

Matthew 18:20

To see the lesson on painting this watercolor, click  >HERE<.

Sharing at:
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A Box from Home.

Apricots.

An Apple.

Pretzels.

Nuts.

A few fresh cherry tomatoes from the garden.

 Granola bar.

Some cookies.

They are place into that stained, square-foot compartment in random fashion,

apricots cushioning the apple from bumping and damaging its skin.

There is still room for the main course:

usually the leftovers from dinner.


I hesitate over the colorful crew and think a little prayer over them,

a prayer for my husband's day tomorrow,

something I try to remember to do as I pack his lunch,
although sometimes in my weary hurry to get to bed,
I forget.

But I shouldn't.

 He has to eat his lunch away from the comforts of home:

the kitchen table and chairs,
the sound of birds and the rooster crowing,
the atmosphere of home.

It is a quick few moments over his future day,

a recognition that he is away at work
so that we may enjoy a satisfying lunch in a home we can call ours,
sitting on chairs that have the price tags removed.

A small prayer for a large duty,

greatly appreciated although not nearly thanked enough for it.

A small thing,

a packed lunch with the power to change the world,

or

at least,

hopefully his.

Linking to these Blog Parties:
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Btweennapsontheporch.net

Quantity.

Quantity - "total amount or number."

On your birthday, you had a cold,

so you had to ask them to blow out the candles on your cake.

We had the discussion before we married,

do you remember?

I wanted 5,

you wanted 1.

(Maybe I didn't mention I wanted 5 because I was afraid you might run away.)

The quantity was undecided.

You were not sure you'd have what it takes to provide for

more than one: financially, love, attention.

I wasn't sure I wanted to live without that much love,

noise,

excitement...

and birthday cakes.

So, God had us meet in the middle.

You realized the supply of love never runs out,

even if there aren't enough knees for them to sit on.

I realized I had my cup full

chasing after the four of you...

and the dog and cats,

cows,

pig,

donkey,

guineas,

and fish.

(We need to add chickens to that list...

soon...

please).

I think you like your little brood.

Nah, I know you love us way too many heaps and mounds.

It's quite obvious that we're attached to you,

too.

"Lillie, you're just supposed to lick the end of the candle.

Somebody get that candle from her.

She just ate the end off of it."

They sure are growing up quickly.

Quietly, not so much.

But I'm quite thankful for our quota,

unless you'd like to make it a quad?

Ha-ha-ha!!!

Just quipping,

of course.

Joining in on the fun at

for the letter: Q
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The Day I Met the Woman from the Past

You never really know a man until you understand things from his point of view,
 until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
 
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1960

I was out driving by myself to go pick up some old bread for the pigs.
It's a rare occasion,
to be out by myself.

I had the radio on and heard this statement:

"Susanna Wesley borne nineteen children, including John and Charles Wesley. One day John asked her to define sin. The following is her definition of sin:

'Son,

whatever weakens your reasoning,

impairs the tenderness of your conscience, 

obscures your sense of God, 

or takes away your relish for spiritual things;

in short, if anything increases the authority and power of the flesh over the Spirit,

then that to you becomes sin,

however good it is in itself.'

Source: Baptistboard.com

This really hit my heart.

I tend to box sin up and put labels on it.
I can vilify it that way.

 pinterest.com


It's easier for me to deal with my attitudes and own sense of
personal goodness
when I chalk it up next to my bad.

But this definition,
it knocked all my boxes off the shelf.


When I got home,
I googled this woman,
Susannah Wesley.

I wanted to know who she was.

 Pinterest.com

She was just a mother,
the wife of a preacher,
a man who was dissatisfied with the church of England.
She had been born to a man who was much the same.
Opposition and seeing things for what they were,
accepting the trouble that might come from a different viewpoint
was what she was used to.

And she suffered for it.

Because of the choices her husband made in his preaching,
they suffered the burning of their house and the loss of most of what they owned.
This was partly responsible for putting them into debt
which caused her husband to have to leave for extended times
to find work to help pay off those debts,
and even forcing him to spend some time in prison for them.

Her milk cow's utter was sliced by someone who hated them,
causing them to have no milk,
and she had a lot of mouths to feed.


She had 19 children,

 Pinterest.com
 
only 10 of whom survived until adulthood.

The rest died under the age of two.

My daughter is two,
so the impact of that I could feel keenly.

I can't imagine losing nine children in infancy,
2 sets of twins in the mix.


She was poor, faced opposition, had a busy schedule,
but the education of her children was important to her.

She educated all of her children intensely,
six hours a day,...

 Pinterest.com

only starting when they turned five
because she felt that they needed to be children before that time.

Susannah made it a point to spend an hour each week
alone with each child,
for the point of getting to know them
and meet their individual needs.

She cared about their souls.

 pinterest.com

When her husband was away dealing with the debts,
a temporary preacher filled the pulpit,
spending the preaching time
week after week
preaching on the ills of debt.

How it must have burned her heart to hear his words,
her husband bound by debt,
some of it being his own doing
but also because of the persecution he had faced for speaking out
for right.

After a few weeks,
she could tolerate no more.
After the morning service, she gathered the children at home,
reading to them from the sermons her father had written
or her own husband had in his files.
She wanted their instruction from God to be full,
and took the time to fill in where she saw there was void.
Neighbors and friends asked if they could join in on the readings.

Was she perfect about everything?
Certainly not.
Nobody can be that.

But she was...

A woman of faith.
A woman of unmovable determination
to do right for her children.

A woman who was loyal to her husband
and his character
even when he could be somewhat stubborn at times
and his choices in life brought her difficulties.



The following situation
is an example of  her careful evaluation
and her desire to get her children to understand
a sensitivity to the heart of God.


"Susannah Wesley was one of the the great mothers of history. One day one of her daughters wished to do something which was not altogether bad, but which was not right. When she was told not to do it, she was not convinced.

It was late and she and her mother were sitting beside a dead fire. Her mother said to her:
'Pick up that bit of coal.'

'I don't want to,' said the girl.

 'Go on,' said her mother. 'The fire is out, it won't burn you.'

 'I know that,' said the girl. 'I know it won't burn me but it will blacken my hands.'

 'Exactly,' said Susannah Wesley.
'That thing which you wish to do won't burn, but it will blacken. Leave it alone.'

Source: Family of Destiny.com

It inspires me to hear of women like Susannah.

A woman, with a mother's heart and protective ways,
who can pray for wisdom and refine it into steadfast courage
for the benefit of her children
is admirable.

I find myself in this time of life yearning,
asking God daily,
 for that same wisdom and courage to do right for my children.
Reading about women who did so in years past
is such an encouragement.


Susannah's sons went on to be preachers,
and one of them, Charles, wrote over two thousand hymns.

wikipedia.org

Here are the words to one of my favorites that he wrote:

O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing

by Charles Wesley,


"O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of his grace!
My gracious Master and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honors of Thy name.
Jesus! The name that charms our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease;
‘Tis music in the sinner’s ears,
‘Tis life, and health, and peace.
He breaks the power of canceled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.
He speaks, and, listening to his voice,
New life the dead receive,
The mournful, broken hearts rejoice,
The humble poor believe.
Hear Him, ye deaf, His praise, ye dumb,
Your loosened tongues employ;
Ye blind, behold your Savior come,
And leap, ye lame, for joy.
Look unto Him, ye nations, own
Your God, ye fallen race;
Look, and be saved through faith alone,
Be justified by grace.
See all your sins on Jesus laid:
The Lamb of God was slain,
His soul was once an offering made
For every soul of man." 

 en.wikipedia.org



Though she has passed on,
Susannah Wesley's character and influence has not.

wikimedia.org

Susannah Wesley
(January, 1669 – July, 1742)


Hiphomeschoolmoms.com

Primp - Primp Your Stuff Wednesday

Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays
We Are That Family
Ginger Snap Crafts 

Little Daisy May: What I'm Loving Wednesday

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Greenbeans and Crown Molding

When it is hot like this,

 steamy,

 humid,

 almost-unable-to-breathe hot,

I know it is that time of year again.

Green beans.

Do you like them?

Do you like them in a box?

Do you like them with a fox?

I think they are okay:

not my favorite;

take 'em or leave 'em.

But not to my Farmer.

He and our three children could live on green beans.

There is usually scrambling over the last helping of green beans.

So when I married my Farmer,

I soon realized that July's hottest days

would be marked by picking

and canning green beans.

I can't say I have always had the happiest attitude
when picking them.

I've had 13 seasons of bean beetles
 
 and their eggs,..
 

and larvae,..

to squash
 
in order to maintain the plants for a longer harvest.


 It's the season of scurrying along a dirt path on a garden mat,

a knee high view of the world around me,
 

spiders racing across my bare feet,

grasshoppers bouncing off my head,

praying mantis bobbing in irritation at my interference

in the search of their next meal.

"A house divided cannot stand,"

Abraham Lincoln so wisely said.

And like it or not,

I'm living in a house where

there

MUST

be green beans.

My husband has a favorite saying when it comes to household fix-ups.

"I'm not a carpenter.

I can't do that."

I ignore this remark.

Everything I've given my "non-carpenter" to do,

he does an amazing job:

like the framing he did all around the porch windows.

(HURRAY for the finally finished painted floor!)

I've tried to run his saws

and hammers

and swung at my fair share of nails.

But I TRULY am not a carpenter.

My carpentry usually gets flung out the basement door

with words of frustrating:

"I can't do this!"

after several failed attempts

and decades of lost minutes.

I don't try anymore.

A few weeks ago,

I measured some places around the house that needed molding

and went out and bought it.

I showed my "non-carpenter" when he got home

what my plans were for him

and got irate rejection of the idea.

But the molding was purchased,

my dreams were in his hand,

and the next Saturday,

the saw was buzzing,

and my molding was attached and beautiful.

He helped my plain, newly painted cupboards go from this:

to this:



Our house is not divided on issues of carpentry and green beans.

I understand this is very likely a broad use of the Bible verse,

"And if a house be divided against itself,
that house cannot stand."
Mark 3:25

but the general idea is there.

 Marriage consists of a man and a woman

two extraordinarily different thinking people,

trying to walk in unison on a path through life.

In marriage there is a lot of sacrificing,

a lot of giving up what one wants to do with "my" time

to meet the other person's needs.

Learning to love something that the other loves

is a choice sometimes:

it's friendship.

Smooches and sweetness are grand,

the rose petals on the road of life;

but in the long haul,

friendship is the soft-soled sneakers

that make that road walkable.

We all have them in marriage:

the greenbeans and carpentry we can do for the other.

It's not always fun,
 

but it's worth it.

Linking up to:

 Between Naps on the Porch: Met Monday



Homestead Revival: Barn Hop


Kellys Korner Blog: Share A Piece of Marriage Advice

and to the fabulous